Methods and apparatuses to obtain increased performance and differentiation for an inductive position sensor through improvements to the sense element and target design are disclosed. In a particular embodiment, a sense element includes a transmit coil, a first receive coil that includes a first plurality of arrayed loops, wherein two or more of the first plurality of arrayed loops are at least one of phase blended and amplitude arrayed, and a second receive coil that includes a second plurality of arrayed loops, wherein two or more of the second plurality of arrayed loops are at least one of phase blended and amplitude arrayed, and wherein the first receive coil and the second receive coil are phase shifted. The sense element coils are arrayed in several geometries and layouts, and the coil and target geometry are manipulated to compensate for inherent errors in the fundamental design of an inductive position sensor.

An inductive angle sensor is provided with a stator with an excitation oscillating circuit and a pickup coil arrangement and also with a rotor which is arranged rotatably with respect to the stator and comprises an inductive target arrangement. The excitation oscillating circuit can be energizable with an alternating current, in order to induce an induction current in the target arrangement, and the target arrangement can be designed to generate a magnetic field in reaction to the induction current, which magnetic field in turn generates induction signals in the pickup coil arrangement. The angle sensor further comprises a circuit that is designed to derive an induction strength signal representing the signal strength of the induction signals from the induction signals and to ascertain the spatial clearance between the rotor and the stator on the basis of the induction strength signal, and to generate a corresponding clearance signal.

For an easily implementable method for position determination using an inductive position sensor with increased precision of the position information, the position sensor generates a measurement signal from which a frequency functional dependent on the excitation frequency is formed, which represents a measure of the noise signal and the excitation frequency of the excitation signal is changed so that the frequency functional is minimized or maximized and the excitation frequency that minimizes or maximizes the frequency functional is used for the excitation signal.

A sensor device for measuring a rotational position of an element that is rotatable about an axis of rotation includes a pair of sensing elements. The sensing elements are shifted with respect to each other by at least 120 degrees about the axis of rotation.

Embodiments included herein are directed towards coil configurations for sensing devices, and related methods. Embodiments of the present disclosure may include a sensor including a first circuit. The first circuit may include a first coil arranged in parallel with a second coil. The first circuit may further include an oscillator in electronic communication with the first coil and the second coil. The first circuit may also include at least one capacitor positioned between the oscillator and at least one of the first coil and the second coil.

In at least one aspect, an inductive position sensor comprising a target. The inductive position sensor can include a stator including an excitation coil being inductively coupled to the target, and a receiver coil including a first loop connected in series with a second loop, and inductively coupled with the target such that a receiver coil voltage is generated at the receiver coil. The second loop can be offset, on the stator and relative to the first loop, by a portion of a harmonic period corresponding with a harmonic for nullification in the receiver coil voltage. The inductive position sensor can include a control unit configured to receive a plurality of receiver coil voltages including the receiver coil voltage, the control unit configured to generate an angular position signal based on the plurality of receiver coil voltages.

A measurement device for measuring an angular position of a movable body that is rotatable about an axis of rotation relative to a stationary body, the device comprising, facing each other, a movable portion with a first printed circuit having first tracks formed thereon defining a plurality of target patterns and a stationary portion with a second printed circuit having second tracks formed thereon defining a plurality of measurement patterns that are angularly distributed in regular manner. The target patterns are angularly distributed in irregular manner, the number of target patterns is not less than two, and the product of the number of target patterns multiplied by the number of measurement patterns is not less than twelve.

An inductive angle measuring device includes a scanning element and a scale element having scale tracks. First and third scale tracks have an equal first number of scale structures, and a second scale track has a different number of scale structures. The scale tracks are arranged circumferentially and concentrically about an axis, such that the first scale track is located radially inwardly, the second scale track is located radially between the first scale track and the third scale track, and the third scale track is located radially outwardly. The scanning element includes receiver conductors by which the signals having angle-related signal periods can be generated. The first signal period is equal to the third signal period. An overall signal can be generated from the first signal and the third signal and can be combined with the second signal for determining absolute angle position information.

A variable inductive displacement sensor includes a primary excitation coil, a first secondary coil. and a second secondary coil. The primary excitation coil is configured to generate a variable magnetic field, and the first and second secondary coils are configured to each generate a signal induced by the variable magnetic field. The primary coil and the first and second secondary coils each have one end which is intended to be connected to a common ground.

A method for fail-safe resolver excitation includes generating a resolver excitation signal and providing the resolver excitation signal to an input of a first resolver control circuit and to an input of a second resolver control circuit. The method also includes, in response to the first resolver control circuit detecting a fault in the resolver excitation signal provided to the first resolver control circuit: biasing, using the first resolver control circuit, a first resolver amplifier; and communicating, via a communication bus between the first resolver control circuit and the second resolver control circuit, an indication to the second resolver control circuit that the first resolver control circuit detected the fault in the resolver excitation signal provided to the first resolver control circuit.